A phase transition in the exactness of the NPA hierarchy at the critical doubly-tilted CHSH functional

Abstract

Gigena et al. [npj Quantum Inf. 11, 82 (2025)] proved the exact quantum maximum of the doubly-tilted CHSH functional $B_{αβ}=α\langle A_0\rangle+β\langle B_0\rangle+\mathrm{CHSH}$ and observed that the NPA level required to reach it grows without evident bound toward the critical line $α+β=2$. We quantify the mechanism on the symmetric slice $s=2-α-β$: (i) the quantum value leaves the local bound cubically, $c_Q=4-s+s^3/6-s^4/36+O(s^5)$; (ii) each NPA level overshoots quadratically, $c_k(s)=4-s+a_k s^2+O(s^3)$, with the almost-quantum coefficient computed exactly, $a_{1+AB}=3/64$; (iii) the divergence of the required exact level is equivalent to positivity of the single sequence $(a_k)$ - proven for every $k$ in the companion paper. We prove the supercritical side completely: for all $α,β\ge 1$ and every level the hierarchy is exact, via three explicit rational certificates realizing an affine identity. The hierarchy's exactness thus undergoes a phase transition at the critical line. On the subcritical side we certify the first four levels in exact arithmetic (rational pseudo-moments beating $c_Q$, confirmed by Sturm's theorem). We identify the exact mechanism: rescaled to the critical corner, the limiting obstruction is the Motzkin polynomial, the classical nonnegative-but-not-sum-of-squares form, so the finite-level failure sits in the restricted-certificate regime. The phase boundary has a precise geometric reading via Nie's finite-convergence theorem and Marshall's boundary Hessian condition: a self-tested optimum is finitely NPA-certifiable whenever its boundary Hessian is nondegenerate (contact order two), which holds for the single tilt and fails exactly at the doubly-tilted cubic touch. Three verified errata in the published polynomial system of Gigena et al. are documented.